Scottish Parliament

Written Answers

Monday 8 November 1999

Scottish Executive

Apprenticeships

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive upon what research evidence the target of 20,000 Modern Apprenticeships for Scotland is based.

Henry McLeish: The Skills Audit showed that Scotland is lagging behind in the achievement of level III qualifications. Modern Apprenticeships are specifically designed to provide high quality training at craft, technical and managerial level. This level is the lynchpin of a skilled competitive workforce for the 21 st century.

  Since Modern Apprenticeships were introduced in Scotland in 1996 there has been a steady increase in the number of young people entering the programme. The existing target of 15,000 Modern Apprenticeships by 2002 was increased in Making it Work Together, A Programme for Government, to 20,000 by 2003 to maintain momentum in the expansion of the programme. By setting this target we are making clear our commitment to increasing skills levels. We will ensure that the enterprise network has the resources to meet the new target.

Apprenticeships

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether its target of 20,000 Modern Apprenticeships created by 2003 reflects the number of entrants or the number completing the scheme and, if it is the target for completion, what is the target for entrants.

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, of the 20,000 Modern Apprenticeships which it intends to create, what the target is for successful completion, and by when.

Henry McLeish: The target of 20,000 Modern Apprenticeships by 2003 refers to the number of Modern Apprentices undertaking training. A Modern Apprenticeship is a competence-based qualification, so the timescale for completion can vary. Typically, a Modern Apprenticeship takes three to four years to complete. Modern Apprenticeships were introduced in Scotland in 1996. Most of the group of young people who started training in 1996 should complete their Modern Apprenticeships during the current financial year. The Scottish Executive in partnership with the enterprise networks set a Grant-in-Aid target of 2,100 Modern Apprenticeships to complete their qualification in 1999-2000.

Apprenticeships

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, of the 20,000 Modern Apprentices which it intends to create, what is the breakdown of targets by industrial sector.

Henry McLeish: There are no national targets for MAs by industrial or occupational sector.

  The Skillseekers programme, which includes delivery of Modern Apprenticeships, is largely demand-led. The two main factors are the skills needs of employers and their willingness to train young people and the choices made by young people about their own career path.

  Skillseekers and Modern Apprenticeships are managed and delivered by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise through their network of Local Enterprise Companies. The LECs, in their capacity as local economic development agencies, are well placed to understand and manage the balance between skills needs and demand in their local economy. They can also work with the new National Training Organisations to assess training and skills needs in specific sectors.

Apprenticeships

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have entered Modern Apprenticeships and how many have completed Modern Apprenticeships.

Henry McLeish: Since Modern Apprenticeships were introduced in Scotland in 1996 17,726 young people have entered the programme and 1,979 people have completed.

  Since a Modern Apprenticeship takes three to four years to complete, 1999-2000 is the first year when we expect a number of young people to complete their training. We have set Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise a target of 2,100 Modern Apprentices to complete their training by March 2000.

Culture

Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to provide additional financial support to Scottish Opera and whether it will make a statement.

Mr Sam Galbraith: In May of this year the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) notified three year funding allocations to Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet. These allocations assumed, on the basis of plans and forecasts prepared in discussion with each of the companies and subsequently agreed by their boards, that there would be an accounting deficit at 31 March 2000 of £1,226,000. This figure includes an accumulated deficit of £742,000 brought forward from the previous year, as well as the net costs of £47,000 incurred in setting up the joint company, which both companies had agreed to form as part of the strategy to secure a stable future for both of them.

  As part of the progress towards the creation of the joint company, Mr Adrian Trickey was appointed Interim Chief Executive of that company on 1 September 1999. He undertook an assessment of the financial plans for the joint company and the current financial position of the two constituent companies, which have retained their separate identities pending the creation of a joint board and management structure. He informed the SAC on 29 September that the accounting deficit at 31 March 2000 would be £2.5 million and that there would be a cash deficit in the current financial year of £3.3 million, which would substantially exceed the overdraft facility available to the company. The scale of the cash deficit facing Scottish Opera, within the overall total, suggested that it was faced with imminent insolvency.

  On 30 September the Chairman of the SAC informed the Deputy Minister for Culture and Sport of the deteriorating financial situation at Scottish Opera. On 5 October the SAC telephoned the Scottish Executive Education Department to convey the assessment provided by the Interim Chief Executive of the joint company. This led the Education Department to arrange a meeting on 8 October with the Chairman and officials of SAC to discuss the financial assessment and the options for action by the SAC.

  The SAC indicated that, at this stage of the financial year, their budget of £28 million was fully allocated; and that any decision to provide additional financial assistance in the current financial year would require the Scottish Executive to increase the resources available to the SAC.

  In considering the way forward, the Scottish Executive has taken the view that the preservation of national companies for opera and ballet remains an important objective. This judgement reflects the importance of national companies within a strategy for encouraging participation within Scotland in these aspects of the arts. It also takes account of the capacity which has been demonstrated for valuable educational and outreach work, which enriches the cultural experience of people of all ages throughout Scotland, and the potential benefit to international perceptions of Scotland arising from the reputation for artistic excellence by the national companies.

  The Scottish Executive has also decided that formation of a joint company remains the model which should be pursued as the best option for providing effective overall management of separate artistic companies for opera and ballet.

  These broad strategic decisions are without prejudice to the need for full examination of a range of more detailed issues about the role and funding of the national companies as part of the commitment by the Scottish Executive to produce a National Cultural Strategy. Consideration of these issues is still in progress and will be informed by the continuing process of wide public consultation which the Scottish Executive initiated in August and the recent decision by the Education, Culture and Sport Committee of the Parliament to undertake consideration of the issues relevant to the national arts companies in Scotland.

  Before the Scottish Executive would agree to provide additional resources to contribute towards the forecast cash deficit in the current financial year, it was necessary for us to be confident that the joint company had developed sufficiently to be able to provide an assurance of sound management for the future. Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet have today announced that Mr Duncan McGhie has agreed to become the chairman of the joint company. In addition to his personal interest in the artistic work of the companies, Mr McGhie’s substantial experience of financial management and organisational change, currently as a senior partner of Pricewaterhouse Coopers, is bound to be a considerable asset to the joint company. I welcome his appointment.

  Against this background, and the understanding that the joint company will move quickly to appoint the remaining members of the board and to complete the process of appointing a substantive chief executive and finance director, I am today informing the SAC that I shall increase the resources available to them for the current financial year by £2.1 million in order to allow them to alleviate the cash deficit which the joint company would otherwise face this year.

  This sum is not intended to cover the forecast deficit fully. It takes account of the availability of overdraft facilities and of the expectation that the management of the joint company will examine urgently the options for some reduction of the forecast deficit. Any further funding for this year could only come in the form of an advance of next year’s funding by the SAC, if the company requires a longer time period to achieve reductions in the forecast deficit.

  This speedy action to deal with the current financial situation provides the opportunity for the SAC and the new management of the joint company to consider the lessons to be learnt. I have asked the SAC to let me have a report on their respective conclusions within three months. Once the joint company has been able to review the plans it has inherited and options for restoring stability to the operation of the artistic companies, the SAC will be able to make an informed judgement of the relationship between further funding and the quality and variety of opera and ballet that is appropriate in the light of our emerging cultural strategy for this country in the 21st century.

  Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet are major contributors to Scotland’s cultural life. I want them to remain so, properly structured within the joint company, properly accountable, properly funded and properly integrated with a cultural strategy for the nation as a whole.

Drugs

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will give a breakdown of spending on the National Drug Prevention Initiative.

Angus MacKay: The Scottish Office allocation for the Drug Prevention Initiative in the last three financial years of operation was £387,000 each year.

Drugs

Michael Matheson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail the level of consultation which will take place in relation to appointing the Director or Chief Executive of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Angus MacKay: There has already been considerable consultation with the police and other relevant organisations about the establishment of the Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency.

  The arrangements for appointing the Director are among a range of issues currently under consideration.

Education

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to commission independent research into the accuracy of the assessment system used for Scottish Vocational Qualifications.

Henry McLeish: We have no such plans. A comprehensive UK-wide review of the NVQ/SVQ system was conducted between 1996 and 1998 during which employers, National Training Organisations (NTOs) and awarding bodies identified the need for improvements to the assessment process. NTOs are responsible for defining the standards of competence which SVQs recognise. Revised criteria issued by the Scottish Qualifications Authority in May 1999 now require NTOs also to recommend to awarding bodies any independent assessment considered necessary, the workplace conditions under which assessment should be conducted, and the occupational expertise required by assessors and verifiers.

Education

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive why knowledge based high quality vocational educational programmes such as HNCs are not recognised as fundable qualifications instead of SVQs in programmes such as Skillseekers.

Henry McLeish: The Skillseekers programme is designed to provide work-based training for young people which leads to qualification up to SVQ Level III. HNCs are broadly equivalent to SVQ Level IV which is a higher level qualification than would normally be funded through Skillseekers.

  Skillseekers provides training which leads to occupational competence. SVQs are competence-based qualifications designed to industry standards, so provide a relevant qualification.

Education

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether any research has been conducted into employer preferences for types of vocational qualifications and, if so, whether that research shows that many employers consider that standard educational qualifications and vocational education qualifications at Higher National levels are of superior value to S/NVQs.

Henry McLeish: The Scottish Qualifications Authority carries out tracking research for its full portfolio of qualifications, and for SVQs specifically, to elicit information from stakeholders, including employers, about the awareness, understanding, relevance and perceived benefits of the different types of awards. The research does not seek to make comparisons since the different forms of qualifications are part of the same national framework in Scotland, exist to meet different needs, and are complementary.

  The Scottish Executive is conducting research in the current financial year to investigate the perceptions of employers of the benefits of offering work-based training and opportunities to acquire SVQs in the workplace.

Education

Ms Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to introduce a formal system for accrediting quality work experience activities and to relate such a system to University and College Admissions Service points.

Henry McLeish: The tariff used by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) to assign points to entry qualifications for use by higher education institutions is a matter for UCAS itself. The level and type of qualifications required for admission to courses is in turn a matter for higher education institutions themselves to determine and the Scottish Executive has no locus.

  Relevant work experience can of course already be accredited towards Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs). The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer system (SCOTCAT), which is the existing system for credit arrangements in higher education, also makes provision for accrediting work-based and other experiential learning towards HE qualifications. The SCOTCAT system is a major building block in the comprehensive Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework which is intended to cover all Scottish qualifications from the basic Access level to postgraduate HE level. The extent to which the proposed Framework takes account of qualifications based on quality work experience will be a matter for decision by the partnership steering its development.

Education

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it supports future higher education students seeking scholarship or sponsorship income.

Henry McLeish: Eligible Scottish domiciled students entering higher education in session 1999-2000 who are in receipt of scholarship or sponsorship income can apply for means-tested help with their tuition fees and living costs from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. Any such income is taken account of in the assessment of students’ entitlement to support. The first £1,000 is disregarded and the remainder reduces the means-tested element of support pound for pound. Nevertheless, students studying in Scotland can apply for a student loan of up to £2,725 or £2,155, depending on whether they are living in the parental home or not, irrespective of their own or their families’ income.

  Where the scholarship or sponsorship income is payable from a charitable source to students in particular need, for example students from low income families, the whole of the income is disregarded.

Education

Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools inspection reports have included coverage of progress in content and nutritional standards of school meals since the publication in 1996 of the Scottish Diet Action Plan.

Peter Peacock: Reports published by HM Inspectors of Schools do not comment on nutritional standards of school meals as a matter of course. The school inspection process informs general consideration of healthy eating issues, particularly in the context of health and nutrition education.

Employment

Miss Annabel Goldie (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what was the total number of jobs lost in Scotland since May 1997, broken down by sector and geographical area.

Henry McLeish: There are no published figures on overall job loss or job creation for Scotland.

  Civilian Workforce Jobs series data, which are available quarterly on a seasonally unadjusted basis, show that the total number of employee jobs in Scotland has increased by 41,000 between March 1997 and March 1999.

  Over this period, the number of manufacturing jobs in Scotland fell by 10,000 to 306,000, the number of service sector jobs rose by 33,000 to 1,506,000, and the total number of jobs in other sectors rose by 18,000 to 199,000.

  Data are not available broken down by geographical area.

Enterprise

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to merge Local Enterprise Companies anywhere in Scotland with the economic or business development departments of local authorities.

Henry McLeish: We have no plans for such mergers at this stage, although we encourage partnership and co-operation between local economic development agencies.

Enterprise

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to require Scottish Enterprise to introduce a greater choice of fundable qualifications in mainstream programmes such as Skillseekers and Training for Work.

Henry McLeish: Opportunities and Choices , the Consultation Paper on Post-School Provision for 16-18 year olds raises the issue of funding a wider range of qualifications through the Skillseekers programme. The responses to the consultation exercise are currently being analysed.

  A consultation paper on the future position of the Training for Work programme will be published later this year.

Planning

Mrs Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many completion notices have been served by local authorities on developers on an annual basis, for the last 10 years.

Sarah Boyack: The number of valid completion notices served by local authorities on developers in each of the last 10 years is as shown in the table. All six such notices were confirmed by the Scottish Ministers (previously the Secretary of State).

  


1990 
  

2 
  



1991 
  

1 
  



1992 
  

2 
  



1993 
  

0 
  



1994 
  

0 
  



1995 
  

0 
  



1996 
  

0 
  



1997 
  

1 
  



1998 
  

0 
  



1999 
  

0

Refugees

Donald Gorrie (Central Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any discussion with the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Home Secretary in regard to the implications for refugees in Scotland and for Local Authorities of the Asylum Bill.

Iain Gray: The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues, including the Immigration and Asylum Bill.

Scottish Adjacent Waters Boundary

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-1665 by Mr Jim Wallace on 6 October 1999, whether it will define the area referred to as "part of this area is outwith the sea area covered by the Scottish Adjacent Boundaries Order".

Mr Jim Wallace: The southern boundary to the Scottish zone of British fishery limits in the North Sea is defined in the Scottish Adjacent Waters Boundaries Order 1999. The Civil Jurisdiction (Offshore Activities) Order 1987 defines a boundary further to the south in the North Sea running approximately due east at 55º50’ N.

Student Finance

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had representations from student representatives requesting that it limits the number of places given to student representatives on the Independent Committee of Inquiry into Student Finance to one place, and if so from whom.

Henry McLeish: No such representations were received. The membership of the Committee was proposed and agreed by Parliament on 2 July.

Tourism

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will extend the consultation period for the Scottish Tourism strategy document issued on 3 August beyond 31 August.

Henry McLeish: Over 300 businesses and individuals had submitted views by 30 August. I recognise, however, that it is difficult for some to respond at the height of the tourist season. I announced on 1 September that the consultation period would be extended until the end of September.

Transport

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many road deaths occurred on Scottish roads on an annual basis from 1994 to 1998, and how many of those deaths were not of the driver of a vehicle.

Sarah Boyack: The information requested is set out in the following table.

 Deaths of drivers of vehicles (includes motor cycle riders)Deaths of others (Passengers, pedestrians and pedal cyclists)All deaths  1994   160   203   363 1995   179   230   409 1996   164   193   357 1997   191   186   377 1998   176   209   385